In a study examining the effect of humor on interpersonal attractions, McGee and Shevlin (2009) found that a man’s sense of humor had a significant effect on how he was perceived by women. In the study, female college students were given brief descriptions of a potential romantic partner and then rated the attractiveness of the male on a scale from 1 (low) to 7 (high). The fictitious male was described positively as being single, ambitious, and having good job prospects. In one condition, the description also said that he had a great sense of humor. The results showed that the description was rated significantly higher when “a sense of humor” was included. To further examine this effect, a researcher selected a sample of n 5 16 college males and asked them to read a brief description of a female and then rate the attractiveness of the woman in the description.

The description had been used in previous research but was modified by adding a statement describing a good sense of humor. Based on the previous research, the rating scores for the original description were known to form a normal distribution with m 5 4.0 with a standard deviation of s 5 0.60. The sample mean for the modified description was M 5 4.42. Do the sample data indicate that adding a sense of humor to the description significantly increases the rating scores?

Use a one-tailed test with a 5 .05.